New Hanover School Board "Red for Ed" Ban Fetching Interest Statewide

Progress NC, a Raleigh-based advocacy group, joined local education activists in yesterday's demonstration outside the New Hanover County School Board building.

It’s a red-letter week in public education. Yesterday, the advocacy group Progress NC came down from Raleigh to stand with locals who gathered outside the New Hanover County School Board Building in protest of the Board’s recent ban against "Red for Ed" tee shirts. And WHQR’s Katie O’Reilly reports that this morning, teachers and administrators at Wilmington’s Eaton Elementary School are holding a walk-in to support teachers’ rights to wear red.

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Despite the ban, Eaton Elementary assistant principal Karla Curry says she’s received word from the central office that teachers can indeed stand for their rights to wear red. She says organizers spread the word about the seven a.m. walk-in via email and a school bulletin board.

"I believe we’re rolling out a red carpet for everyone to walk in."

Curry adds that teachers across the state will also be wearing red today in support of New Hanover County’s educators. Gerrick Brenner, Executive Director of Progress NC, says this is the only North Carolina county in which he’s heard of such a ban.

"It’s interesting that a sitting school board would perceive the slogan “Red for Ed” and tee shirts to be somehow, divisively politically partisan. I mean, where have we come to as a state in thinking that these kinds of statements in support of public schools aresomehow politically threatening?"

According to organizers of yesterday’s rally, the North Carolina ACLU’s former legal director has written the New Hanover County School Board questioning the constitutionality of the ban.

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